The clock may be ticking toward summer—the season gets under way at 6:59 p.m.
Friday—but you wouldn’t have known it late Wednesday. Temperatures across a
westward moving lake-breeze front varied so widely the front was discernable to area
weather radar despite the lack of precipitation with it. While most cool fronts powered
by breezes off Lake Michigan make it only 20 or 25 miles inland in mid June,
Wednesday’s traveled more than 50 miles in. By evening, temperatures near the lake
had tumbled into the 50s even as 80-degree readings lingered to the west. The
strength of this front was a product of Lake Michigan water temperatures 12-degrees
cooler than a year ago—a leftover from Chicago’s chilly May.
HAIL THE SIZE OF SOFTBALLS BOMBARDS THE PLAINS WEDNESDAY
More than 5 dozen reports of hail accompanied thunderstorms across eight Plains
states. Hardest hit was an area southeast of Westerville, Neb., and just north of
Center, N.D., where hail the size of softballs (4.25 inches in diameter) fell. Record
heat continued in the Southwest with Palm Springs, Calif., setting a temperature
record of 115 degrees.
